Why are some pearls more expensive than others?

Posted on Aug 01, 2011 in About Pearls

Natural Pearls

Due to their increasing rarity, prices of natural pearls have risen considerably in recent years but they still don’t match in real terms those of the early 1900’s. Nevertheless natural pearls are still worth a lot more than cultured pearls.

Seawater Pearls

Cultured seawater pearls are more expensive than cultured freshwater pearls for a number of reasons including

• The cost of obtaining and implanting the US–sourced bead nucleus
• The substantially higher rejection rate of the shell bead nucleus
• The sea being a much harsher environment for the cultivation process with its greater variations in water temperatures and salinity; typhoons and tidal waves and man-made pollution.
• The most important reason, however, for the cost variation is that a seawater oyster can only produce one or two sizeable pearls at a time.

By comparison, in China and Japan, a single freshwater mussel can produce 40-50 pearls per harvest.

In addition the mussel is capable of being cultured and harvested 6-8 times throughout its life whereas a pearl-producing oyster can only be harvested 3-4 times at most.